Page 46 of The Alpha Experiment
I was too tired to joke about it, even though it felt so goddamn weird when he shut it after me before going around to get in himself.
I leaned back, my eyes slipping shut.
Shotgun had to keep the driver awake, though.
I passed out while he was still starting the car.
***
I spent the night in the lab.
The nap in the car, followed by the world’s longest shower—in which I tried very hard not to touch my ass more than necessary, partly because I keptwantingto—followed by a full pot of coffee, had me raring to go.
Colin, to my shock and dismay, also opted to spend the night in the lab.
Or rather, in the hallway outside of it, because he’d only get in the way—and the university had rules about who was allowed in, in any case.
“But what are you going to do?” I wanted to know, as he followed me out of my apartment like a big, muscled, hulking duckling. “I mean, I’m going to be analyzing blood samples all night. I won’t be leaving the lab to hang out with you. And the vending machine down the hall doesn’t even have Cheetos. You’ll starve to death. Why are you even coming, anyway?”
Colin finished tapping something into his phone and looked up at me, sticking it in his pocket. “I just ordered pizza to your lab, dude. It’ll get there ten minutes after we do. I’m coming along because I don’t know who else hangs around there, and it might not be safe.” His tone didn’t offer any room for argument. Should I try to explain that by biochemists’ standards, I was kind of big and muscular, actually, and that I could take any three of the other scientists who used the lab? No, not worth it. “And I have my phone charger,” he added, cutting off my resigned sigh. “I’ll buy unlimited lives in my game. The pack can afford the ten bucks. Anyway, if I tried to sneak into the lab and hang out, I’d end up knocking over a beaker and starting the zombie apocalypse or something. The hall’s fine.”
I honestly couldn’t think of an answer to that, and in lieu of a good argument to offer, I found myself in the passenger seat of Colin’s car instead of the driver’s seat of my own, and being chauffeured to campus in beat-up Cadillac luxury.
I only squirmed a little in my seat. My ass felt like…well, like it’d gotten well and thoroughly fucked by a giant supernatural cock. It still felt empty.
The lab I used was hidden away on the third floor of a building in an unglamorous, less-landscaped corner of the campus, which at least made parking easy—and meant there weren’t many passersby. I figured Colin wouldn’t attract too much attention parked in the hallway, and left him to it.
The sound of the lab door opening startled me into looking up from my laptop, where I had the results of the tests I’d completed so far. More were running, but I wouldn’t have anything more for a while. Meredith came around the corner, into the narrow space between the two lab benches that ran the length of the room. She had a fuzzy purple hat perched on her head with a bobble on top so large it took me a sec to realize she was stuffing a last bite of pizza crust in her mouth.
“Hey. Looks like you ran into Colin?” His name leaving my lips felt strange and awkward, and my cheeks heated up. I cleared my throat quickly, hoping she didn’t notice. “What are you doing here?”
Meredith usually used a different lab that she shared with a research group she’d gotten a grant to be a part of, although she came in here from time to time to work on side projects.
“Looking for you,” she said. “I texted you a couple of times, and when you didn’t answer I figured you were probably here. The pizza was an unexpected bonus. Also, your friend. Jeez, Newton, that pic you sent really didn’t do him justice.”
My face only got hotter, only this time it wasn’t just embarrassment, but…anger? That feeling bubbling up in my chest couldn’t be anything else, but I didn’t have the faintest clue why. She’d interrupted me while I was working, yeah, but…maybe I was jealous of the pizza. Colin could give her a piece, but hadn’t bothered to text or knock on the door and nag me into eating, right? What kind of best friend gave away my pizza, anyway?
“He has a couple of slices saved for you, by the way. He told me to tell you to stop and eat something before you pass out and ‘fall face-first into a beaker of zombie juice,’ whatever the hell that means.” I couldn’t help smiling. I could hear the quotes in her voice, and it was so, so Colin.
I stood up from the stool I’d been perched on for the past couple of hours, my back cracking and my ass absolutely freakingthrobbing. “I can take a break. Should we go—”
“In a second,” she said, cutting me off. “Look, this is none of my business. But what the hell have you been up to this week, Newton? And why’s Colin parked outside the lab growling every time he hears the elevator? I mean, aside from general paranoia. I’m glad he’s making sure you’re safe, but are you safe withhim? I mean, I know you two have been close for a long time, and he gave me pizza, and he’s incredibly hot, so I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, here. But he’s not…abusive, or controlling, right? Because he seems a little—intense.”
Colin,abusive? Intense, even? I stared at her open-mouthed, too bewildered to even get pissed-off on his behalf. Wait a damn minute, that made it sound like she thought we were…but we weren’t…except that when I wasn’t focusing on my work, I couldn’t feel anything except for the lingering, lasting feeling of being stretched open on his giant knot.
My mind whirled like a kaleidoscope and then resettled into a new pattern.
Would what we’d done look like an abusive relationship to someone who didn’t have any context?
I choked on a hysterical laugh and tried to cover it with a cough, resulting in Meredith taking a step toward me, a worried frown on her face and a hand extended, presumably to pat me on the back.
I waved her off and managed to get myself under control. “I’m fine, I’m fine, just—look, everything’s fine. With Colin. Everything’s—fine.”
“You sound about as convincing as Han Solo pretending to be a stormtrooper,” she snapped. “You’re obviously not fine. You look like shit. I mean, you always look like shit when you’re pulling an all-nighter, who doesn’t, but you also look like you got dragged sideways through a bush and haven’t slept in days.” Gods, if only she knew. “And have you talked to the police yet? Do I have to tie you up and sit on you to get a fucking honest answer about what’s going on with you, Newton?”
She fixed me with a steely-eyed glare, and despite the ridiculous hat and diminutive stature, I could suddenly really, really easily picture her tying me up.
It made me think of my speculations about female alphas.
